Shadowing Practice: Arriving on the Island | Shutter Island - Learn English Speaking with Video
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96 sentences
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1
Electrified perimeter.
2
What can you tell?
3
Seen something like it before.
4
All right, you gentlemen will be accorded all the help we can give.
5
But during your stay, you will obey protocol.
6
Is that understood?
7
Absolutely.
8
The red brick building on your right is Ward A, the male ward.
9
Ward B, the female ward, is the one on your left.
10
Ward C is that building on the Bluffs.
11
An old Civil War fort.
12
The most dangerous patients are housed there.
13
Admittance to Ward C is forbidden without the written consent and physical presence of both myself and Dr. Carley.
14
Is that understood?
15
You act like insanity is catching.
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you are hereby required to surrender your firearms
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mr mcpherson we are duly appointed federal marshals we are required
18
to carry our firearms with us at all times executive order 319 of the federal code of penitentiary states
19
that when inside a penitentiary the offices of that institution have final authority
20
gentlemen you will not get through this gate with your firearms Okay,
21
now that the official stuff's done,
22
come on boys, what do you say we go find Dr. Cauley? When did she escape?
23
This prisoner.
24
I'm afraid Dr. Carley will have to fill you in on the situation.
25
Protocol.
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Correctional officers at a mental institution.
27
That's a weird sight, if you don't mind me saying.
28
It's the only facility of its kind in the U .S., even the world.
29
We take only the most dangerous, damaged patients, ones no other hospital can manage.
30
And it's all due to Dr. Colley.
31
He's created something really unique here.
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It's a hospital for people in our society.
33
The top of his class at Johns Hopkins, then have it.
34
IDs, gentlemen.
35
Show your badges, gentlemen.
36
Dr. Cawley's been consulted numerous times by Scotland Yard, MI5, the OSS.
37
Why?
38
What do you mean?
39
What do intelligence agencies want to consult a psychiatrist about?
40
I guess you'll have to ask him.
41
Marshal Daniels.
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Doctor.
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Marshal Orr.
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Thank you, Deputy Warden, that'll be all.
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Yes, sir.
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Pleasure, gentlemen.
47
He had a lot to say about you.
48
McPherson's a good man.
49
He believes in the work we do here.
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And what would that be, exactly?
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A moral fusion between law and order and clinical care.
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Pardon me, Jack, or what between what and what?
53
Those paintings are quite accurate.
54
Used to be the kind of patients we deal with here were shackled and left in their own filth.
55
They were beaten, as if whipping them bloody would drive the psychosis out.
56
We drove screws into their brains.
57
We submerged them in icy water until they lost consciousness or even drowned. And now?
58
We treat them, try to heal, try to cure.
59
And if that fails, at least we provide them with a measure of comfort in their lives, calm.
60
These are all violent defenders, right?
61
I mean, they've hurt people, murdered them in some cases.
62
In almost all cases, yes.
63
And personally, doctor, I'd have to say screw their sense of calm.
64
it's my job to treat my patients not their victims i'm not here to judge
65
so this female prisoner patient excuse me patient one rachel salando
66
escaped sometime in the last 24 hours last night between 10 and midnight she considered dangerous you could say that
67
she killed all three of her children she drowned them in the lake behind her house
68
She took them out one by one, held their heads under till they died.
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Then she brought them back inside and arranged them round the kitchen table.
70
She ate a meal there before a neighbor dropped by.
71
And what about the husband?
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He died on the beaches at Normandy.
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She's a war widow.
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She starved herself when she first came here.
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She insisted the children weren't dead.
76
Sorry, doctor, you don't happen to have an aspirin, do you?
77
Prone to headaches, Marshal.
78
Sometimes, but today I'm a little more prone to seasickness.
79
Ah, dehydration.
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You all right, boss?
81
Yeah.
82
In that case, you're quite right.
83
The simpler, the better.
84
Oh, thanks so much.
85
Rachel?
86
Still believes the children are alive.
87
She also believes this place is her home in the Berkshires.
88
You're kidding me.
89
She's never once in two years acknowledged that she's in an institution.
90
She believes we're all deliverymen, milkmen, postal workers.
91
To sustain the delusion that her children never died, she's created an elaborate fictional structure, and she gives us all parts to play in that fiction.
92
So have you searched the grounds yet?
93
The warden and his men scoured the island.
94
Not a trace, and what's more disturbing is we don't know how she got out of her room.
95
It was locked from the outside and the only windows barred.
96
It's as if she evaporated straight through the walls.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Arriving on the Island”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: ward, patient, gentlemen, Marshal, believes. This video has 96 sentences and 796 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:09. The speaker talks at a steady 111 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 79% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding. 17 of its 96 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ward noun | /wɔɹd/ | The action of a watchman; monitoring, surveillance (usually in phrases keep ward etc.) |
| gentleman noun | /ˈd͡ʒɛn.təl.mən/ | Any well-bred, well-mannered, or charming man. |
| institution noun | /ˌɪn.stɪˈtʃuː.ʃən/ | A long-established organization or type of organization, particularly one involved with education, public service, or charity work. |
| firearm noun | /ˈfaɪəɹˌɑː(ɹ)m/ | A personal weapon that uses explosive powder to propel a projectile often made of lead. |
| prisoner noun | /ˈpɹɪzənə/ | A person incarcerated in a prison, while on trial or serving a sentence. |
| protocol noun | /ˈpɹoʊtəˌkɑl/ | An amendment to an official treaty. |
| prone adjective | /pɹəʊn/ | Lying face-down. |
| consult verb | /ˈkɑnsʌlt/ | To seek the opinion or advice of another; to take counsel; to deliberate together; to confer; to advise. |
| drown verb | /dɹaʊn/ | To die from suffocation while immersed in water or other fluid. |
| warden noun | /ˈwɔɹdən/ | A chief administrative officer of a prison. |
| meal noun | /ˈmiːl/ | Food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time, and usually in a comparatively large quantity. |
| gate noun | /ˈɡeɪ̯t/ | A doorlike structure outside a house. |
| moral adjective | /ˈmoɹəl/ | Of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behaviour, especially conforming to principles of rectitude. |
| violent adjective | /ˈvaɪ.ə.lənt/ | Involving extreme force or motion. |
| fort noun | /fɔɹt/ | A fortified defensive structure stationed with troops. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| get out of verb | To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of. | |
| get through verb | /ɡɛt ˈθɹu/ | To overcome; to endure. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- What can you tell?
- It's a hospital for people in our society.
- What do you mean?
- I guess you'll have to ask him.
- Sorry, doctor, you don't happen to have an aspirin, do you?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | will be accorded · are housed · is forbidden |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | Cawley's been consulted · they've hurt · have you searched |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 14 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: institution /ˌɪn.stɪˈtʃuː.ʃən/, fiction /ˈfɪkʃən/, consciousness /ˈkɑnʃəsnəs/, fusion /ˈfjuː.ʒən/, marshal /ˈmɑɹʃəl/
- Long words — get the stress right: institution /ˌɪn.stɪˈtʃuː.ʃən/, elaborate /ɪˈlæb.ə.ɹeɪt/, insanity /ɪnˈsænɪti/, psychiatrist /ˌsaɪˈkaɪ.ə.tɹɪst/, perimeter /pɪˈɹɪm.ɪ.tə/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like ward, gentleman, institution.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.